Date:
April 24, 1949
Location: White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico, United
States

"The
object was an ellipsoid about 2½ times as long
as it was wide. It had a length of about .02 degrees subtended
angle and was gleaming white in color. It did not have
metallic or reflected shine. Toward the underside near
the tail, the gleaming white became a light yellow. The
object was seen under conditions of a cloudless sky and
no haze. It left no vapor trail or exhaust.

Skeptics
have often claimed in public forums that "no astronomer
has ever seen a UFO," sometimes implying that this
proved UFOs do not exist. Astronomers, other scientists,
and experienced observers of many types have often made
reports [Section V, VI].

One
detailed report by trained observers, describing a maneuvering
elliptical UFO, has been reported briefly in the literature.
The full, copyrighted story is here reproduced, with permission
of the publisher.

The
General Mills, Inc., balloon personnel, who launched and
tracked most of the large plastic research balloons during
the 1940's and 1950's took little stock in UFO reports
until April 24, 1949:

"On
that date, a balloon crew was at the White Sands Proving
Ground in New Mexico, together with personnel from the
U.S Navy Special Devices Center for a special Skyhook
flight to be undertaken for that Office of Naval Research
activity. The author was present as Navy representative
in charge of the ground handling and balloon phases of
the operation."

"As
part of this particular project, a balloon launching site
had been established three miles north of Arrey, New Mexico.
Charles B. Moore, Jr., an aerologist, graduate engineer
and balloonist, and four enlisted personnel from the Navy
Unit, White Sands Proving Ground, had set up facilities
there to observe and record local weather data preparatory
to the Special Devices Center Skyhook operation. Instrumentation
on hand consisted of a stop watch and a ML-47 (David White)
theodolite, a tracking instrument consisting of a 25-power
telescope so mounted as to provide readings of vertical
(elevation) and horizontal (azimuth) bearings."

"At
10:20 A.M. on April 24th, this group of five released
a small 350-gram weather balloon for observation of upper
wind velocities and directions. The balloon was followed
by Moore with the theodolite until immediately after the
10:30 reading, when he relinquished the tracking instrument
to look up to find the balloon with the naked eye."

"Searching
the sky for the balloon, he thought he had found it when
he saw a whitish spherical object right along the direction
the theodolite was pointed (45 degrees elevation and 210
degrees azimuth). The object was moving east at a rate
of 5 degrees of azimuth change per second."

"When
the difference in angle between the theodolite and the
supposed balloon became apparent, Moore took over the
theodolite and found the true balloon still there, whereupon
he immediately abandoned it and picked up the unidentified
object as it came out of the sun. At the time, the sun
was at a computed bearing of 60 degrees elevation and
127 degrees azimuth. The object was moving too fast to
be kept in the scope through cranking the theodolite around;
one of the men, therefore, had to point the theodolite
while Moore observed the object through the telescope."

"The
object was an ellipsoid about 2½ times as long
as it was wide. It had a length of about .02 degrees subtended
angle and was gleaming white in color. It did not have
metallic or reflected shine. Toward the underside near
the tail, the gleaming white became a light yellow."

"The
object, readily visible to the naked eye and seen by all
the members of the group, filled the field of the theodolite's
25-power scope. Its rapid movement, unfortunately, prevented
Moore from obtaining a hard or clear focus, and no good
detail was observable."

"The
azimuth angle decreased as the object continued on a north
heading (it originally came out of the southwest). Becoming
smaller in size it moved to an azimuth reading of 20 degrees
to 25 degrees, at which point the azimuth held constant.
Coincidentally with this constant azimuth, the elevation
angle suddenly increased from 25 degrees minimum to 29
degrees, at which point the object was lost to sight.
It disappeared in a sharp climb after having been visible
to Moore and his group for about 60 seconds."

"Fifteen
minutes after the object had disappeared, Moore sent up
another pibal weather balloon to check wind values. This
balloon burst after an 88-minute flight to 93,000 feet
and traveled only 13 miles in a southerly direction during
that time. This was positive proof that the object could
not have been a balloon moving at such angular speed below
90,000 feet."

"The
object was seen under conditions of a cloudless sky and
no haze. It left no vapor trail or exhaust. It was observed
from an isolated mud flat in the New Mexico desert where
there was extreme quiet; no noise of any kind was heard
in connection with the sighting, and there were no cars,
airplanes, or other noises nearby which might have blotted
out sound coming from the object."

"As
the day progressed and airplanes flew over and near the
balloon launching site, Moore's group was able to identify
them by appearance and engine noise. They saw nothing
again that day which bore any resemblance to the white
elliptical, unidentified object."

"Moore's
sighting was an extremely fortunate one in that tracking
instrumentation was set up and a weather balloon airbourne
at the time. It represents one of the best substantiated
and authentic unidentified object sightings on record."

"The
foregoing discussion of 'flying saucers' does not represent
any desire by the author to become involved in this controversial
subject. The saucers have been mentioned because there
has been in a number of cases a close relationship between
reported sightings and the flight trajectories of Skyhook
balloons. The description of Moore's instrumented sighting
of an unidentified object has been included because it
is authentic, details have not been previously published,
and it occurred during a Skyhook operation."

"The
author, and indeed Moore himself, make no claim that the
unidentified object was a 'flying saucer.' The details
have been set forth. Let the reader take the sighting
for what it is worth and evaluate it for himself!"